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About Tatsushi Arai

Born and raised in a rural part of eastern Japan, Dr Tatsushi (Tats) Arai (新井立志) began his search for a nonviolent means of conflict resolution at age 15, when he first met victims of radiation sickness in Hiroshima.

Dr Arai is currently an Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at Kent State University in Ohio, USA. Prior to joining Kent State in 2019, he was Sergio de Mello Endowed Visiting Chair in the Practice of Post-conflict Diplomacy at Seton Hall University's School of Diplomacy in New Jersey and a Professor of Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation at the School for International Training (SIT) Graduate Institute in Vermont. In 2018, he served as a United Nations Senior Mediation Adviser on a when-actually-employed basis. Previously he was a Lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the National University of Rwanda in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide.
 
Over the past twenty five years, Dr Arai has served as a mediator, dialogue facilitator, trainer, mentor, adviser, consultant, program evaluator, and peace researcher in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the United States. His recent activities include training Syrian, Lebanese, Turkish, Afghan, Pakistani, Nepali, Burmese, Singaporean, and American government, civil society, and humanitarian assistance professionals; building the mediation skills of diplomats from Muslim-majority countries; supporting a Nigerian-led process of establishing a gender-inclusive Muslim-Christian platform of former Boko Haram members' community reintegration and reconciliation; providing an advisory role in Rwandan initiatives for community-based healing and reconciliation; facilitating interfaith dialogues and government-civil society exchanges in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and the broader Indo-Pacific regional context; and convening problem-solving workshops on the Taiwan Strait as well as on the East China Sea to help establish sustainable peacemaking platforms. In addition, drawing upon the diverse institutional partnerships and venues in the United States and other countries, Dr Arai has regularly trained and advised civilian government, military, police, and peacekeeping professionals, representatives of international organizations, and civil society and religious leaders in deeply conflict-affected countries and regions.
 
Dr Arai holds a BA in Law from Waseda University in Tokyo, an MA in International Policy Studies from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (previously the Monterey Institute of International Studies) in California, and a PhD in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University's Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution in Virginia. He speaks English and Japanese, has a functional knowledge of French, and studied basic Kinyarwanda. He lives in Cleveland, Ohio, USA with his tri-national family.
 
 

Positions

Present Fellow, The Center for Peacemaking Practice, the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University
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Present Professor of Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation, SIT Graduate Institute
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Research Interests

Conflict resolution, peacebuilding, multi-track diplomacy, action research

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Education

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2005 PhD, George Mason University ‐ Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution
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Contact Information

tats0919@gmail.com

Email:



Public Presentations & Interviews (18)

Books (6)

Journal Articles (23)